Stock Trading.

S&P Mid Cap 400 index futures trading contracts are traded through an auction-like process, with all bids and offers on each contract made public. Through this, a prevailing market price is reached for each contract, based primarily on the laws of supply and demand. This forum is a useful - and essential - element in a free market economy. You might be surprised to know that the futures markets are rarely used to actually buy or sell the physical commodity or financial instrument being traded; they're used for price estimation, risk management, and for some people, investment and profit.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) & iShares, Options & Futures Trading / Futures Contracts

S&P Mid Cap 400 Index Options Contracts

Options are contracts in which the terms of the contract are standardized and give the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a particular asset (e.g., the underlying stock) at a fixed price (the strike price) for a specific period of time (until expiration). To the buyer, an equity call option normally represents the right to buy 100 shares of underlying stock, whereas an equity put option normally represents the right to sell 100 shares of underlying stock. The seller of an option is obligated to perform according to the terms of the options contract-selling the stock at the contracted price (the strike price) for a call seller, or purchasing it for a put seller-if the option is exercised by the buyer. All option contracts trade on U.S. securities exchanges are issued, guaranteed and cleared by the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). OCC is a registered clearing corporation with the SEC and has received 'AAA' credit rating form Standard & Poor's Corporation. The 'AAA' credit rating corresponds to OCC's ability to fulfill its obligations as counter-party for options trades.

iShares are exchange-traded securities that represent ownership in over 50 different index funds, each designed to provide investment returns corresponding to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of a particular index compiled by one of five index providers: Standard & Poor’s (a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.), Dow Jones & Company, Cohen & Steers, The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc., Frank Russell Company and Goldman Sachs Group. There is no assurance that the price and yield performance of each particular index for each fund can be fully matched.

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